


Forever

by riverwriteskinda



Category: Tennis RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23768884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riverwriteskinda/pseuds/riverwriteskinda
Summary: inspired by the song "Share your Address" by Ben Platt. Hope you'll enjoy it! :)
Relationships: Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	Forever

**Author's Note:**

> 🎶I wanna be your emergency contact  
> You can put me down  
> 'Cause you know I know you best  
> It doesn't matter where I go  
> Without you, I'll never be home  
> I wanna share your address🎶

He's seen their names together on countless occasions, separated only by a line, keeping them apart, alike the nets that have come between them throughout the years. It seemed like they were so close at times, yet so far apart, separated only by a material, only by a hyphen, but in reality they were worlds in-between them. People, lies, appearances. All these keeping them apart, making them question their feelings, doubt their love, blame each other. Sometimes it didn't even feel like they belonged in the same world. Their realities colliding so painfully, but still surviving it all, all the storms, all the fights. That said a lot about their love and their feelings, but there were moments when they couldn't see it, especially when the frustration and pain cut too deep, leaving behind a nasty scar. Moments that would make them curse the day they met, curse their shared destinies, curse and curse and shatter into pieces. Moments in which they wanted to give it all up, to lose it all. To have nothing. Nor fame, nor money, but each other. They never felt more helpless, more shattered than when they couldn't comfort their lover after hours and hours of a gruesome match. A pain that they caused to their beloved. A pain they caused knowingly. Their hearts broke each time. And getting stuck at a crossroad, somewhere torn between their own happiness and their lover's misfortune, that had to be the worst kind of feeling. Guilt and sadness and fear. They were always so frightened, dreading the thought that they won't recover after that match or that final. That the relationship won't survive, that they aren't strong enough. Waiting with a lump in their throat the moment one of them would be done, the moment they would collapse, the moment they would both lose their footing and fall into the darkness. 

The truth is their love never fit like two pieces of a puzzle, sliding perfectly, coming together in an marvellous assemblage. No. Quite the opposite. They both fought fiercely as though in a grotesque dance, ironically alike to the one that happened each time they met on the court, only to keep each other close. Only to hold on to each other. Desperately grasping onto the shreds of their sanity, because being apart was unimaginable. Because there was nothing better than waking up next to each other, nothing more precious than seeing the other's face, first thing in the morning. Nothing softer that the other's lips. Nothing better than their mouths and bodies intertwined. 

Roger's seen the screens with their names on it so many times, in the midst of their worst and most painful moments on court or in the most joyous times, playing on the same side of the net at Laver Cup and during their exhibition matches, that he got so used to it. Federer and Nadal, bound not only by fate, but also by love. One could not exist without the other, inseparable in history and everything else. 

But now, looking at the papers in front of them, as they were about to sign, they were both flabbergasted. They've seen their names together so many times. On the biggest monitors, on the widest screens. They heard them being shouted and cheered for the past 15 years in the biggest arenas. On TV, on the news, in magazines... And yet, when they saw their names on that sheet they froze. Because all of a sudden, it meant something else. Something so different and right and pure. No longer rivals, no longer separate individuals. No matter through how much they would go after this, they knew they would endure it. Together. Because as of today, they wouldn't be Mr. Rafael Nadal and Mr. Roger Federer anymore, they would be husbands, the Federer-Nadal family. And they wouldn't have had it any other way. They were so eager to finish with the paperwork and to finally start sharing their lives together. This time around, the right way. Truthfully and completely. Sharing it all. 

It felt so incredibly strange, that now they bore the name of their biggest tennis rival. A name they were instructed by society to resent, to hate even. But today that changed and honestly, they couldn't care less about the consequences, the repercussions of their actions. If their demise happened because for once they finally admitted and accepted their love, for once they were putting themselves first and the world second, if that's how they were going to fall, then so be it. They'll have each other to hold on to at night, they'll share it all. Face it all, together. 

It was quite the news. All the channels were covering their story, as reporters were going through tennis archives, looking to pinpoint the exact moment these rival's relationship turned drastically. From enemies to lovers. Literally. At the same time, inside the Nadal-Federer Tennis Academy, Roger and Rafa sat in front of the TV, eating popcorn and laughing at the desperate attempts of journalists to find something. But love is not like a switch that you can press and it certainly did not appear out of nowhere. They had to learn it the hard way. Powering through all the costs and sacrifices of the love they built together. Nothing was handed to them. Not even one step. They had to fight for it and they won. 


End file.
